Amendment to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals, London, 1988

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NOTE NO: ALZ 264/4

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office present their compliments to Their Excellencies Mesdames and Messieurs, the Heads of Diplomatic Missions of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals and have the honour to transmit herewith 10 copies of the Report of the 1988 Meeting to Review the Operation of the Convention.

The Report contains recommended proposals for the amendment of the Annex to the Convention. In paragraph 40 of the Report, the Meeting requested the Depositary to transmit the Recommendations contained in paragraphs 21, 31 and 36 of the Report to all Contracting Parties in accordance with Article 9(1) of the Convention. The texts of these paragraphs are set out below in their English language version. The texts in other official languages are set out in the Report.

‘21. Representatives, pursuant to paragraph 19(a) above, agreed to recommend for approval by their respective Governments, that the Annex be changed in the following way:

Section 1: for 1 July to 30 June read 1 March to the last day in February.

Section 6(a): for 31 October read 30 June and for 1 July to 30 June read 1 March to the last day in February.’

‘31. Accordingly, they agreed on the text of the following amendment to the Annex (new paragraph 8) which they recommended to the Governments of Contracting Parties for their approval.

‘8: Cooperation The Contracting Parties to this Convention shall, as appropriate, cooperate and exchange information with the Contracting Parties to the other international instruments within the Antarctic Treaty System and their respective institutions.’ ’

‘36. Representatives, noting that they agreed on the desirability of extending the protection afforded to Weddell seals to include pups during the breeding season, agreed to recommend to Governments the deletion in section 2 of the Annex of the words ‘one year old or older’.’

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office request that these Recommendations be drawn to the attention of your authorities. At the same time the Foreign and Commonwealth Office wish to recall that, in accordance with Article 9(2) of the Convention, ‘each such proposed amendment shall become effective for all Contracting Parties six months after the date appearing on the notification from the Depositary to the Contracting Parties, if within 120 days of the notification date, no objection has been received and two-thirds of the Contracting Parties have notified the Depositary in writing of their approval.’ The Foreign and Commonwealth Office would, therefore, be grateful for a response in due course.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office avail themselves of this opportunity to renew to Their Excellencies Mesdames and Messieurs, the Heads of Diplomatic Missions of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals the assurance of their highest consideration.

[Initials] [Seal]

27 SEPTEMBER 1989